Plenty in pipeline, says Minister

INFRASTRUCTURE Minister Michael Ferguson has defended the State Government’s investment in major projects after a report revealed Tasmania was one of the lowest spenders.

The 2019 Australian Infrastructure Audit showed only the Australian Capital Territory had a smaller committed major project pipeline of definite and planned works. Precise figures were not supplied but the value of definite major infrastructure projects in Tasmania was less than $5 billion.

Mr Ferguson said Tasmania’s population made the investment look small.

“Reports highlighting Tasmania’s absolute spend compared to other jurisdictions is a disingenuous comparison, considering that we are by far the smallest state,” he said.

Mr Ferguson said a better comparison would be the proportion of infrastructure spending in the budget, which had almost doubled from about 7 per cent in 2014 to almost 12 per cent in 2018-19. The 2019-20 state budget had allocated $3.6 billion for intergenerational infrastructure, which per capita made Tasmania a competitive investor.

But Labor infrastructure spokesman David O’Byrne said the government’s infrastructure budget was a “complete myth to distract from skyrocketing debt”.

“Their own budget shows they are forecast to spend less on infrastructure next year, and even less the year after that,” he said. “The 30-year infrastructure strategy has been delayed three times and there’s no sign of Hobart’s underground bus mall or the airport roundabout.”